According to Game Jouhou’s report, a major update is scheduled for Hollow Fragment in July. This update will raise the level cap to 250, and will also add a new feature called “Grand Quests,” along with a new events, fields, and maps.

Since the level cap is being increased, the development team will also be adding new dungeons and bosses to go with it. The update will also add higher level monsters.

On the partner and relationship side of things, more dating event features with Sachi will be added, and Argo the information seller can now join your party as an ally. The difficulty and various system functions will also be adjusted.

Additionally, starting in May there will be weekly downloadable content, which will start out with items for lower level characters and a Kirito avatar from the Fairy Dance arc of Sword Art Online. This wave of DLC will carry on into the month of June, and will all be free.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment will be released on April 24 in Japan and this summer in North America for PlayStation Vita.

Just in time for the second season to start airing on TV. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

http://hanzoadam.tumblr.com/ Hanzoadam

I doubt it as they’re totally different.

The 1st series was sword and shields and the 2nd is about Guns and from what I’ve seen energy weapons.

X_Bacon

They’re still the same franchise, though.

MrTyrant

They have to play one with super robots.

Nate

I thought it was well played too.

Leon_Tekashi

So….When will they implement online co-op?

JMaster3000

I’m pretty sure that there’s alrady online multiplayer.

http://youtube.com/miyabigaming 禍津水樹 (MagatsuMizuki)

mp is adhoc as far as I know

AlphaSixNine

Love the picture.

Btw… not sure if this is true but I heard you can use your save from the JPN version with the Asia release coming in May. Is that true? And does that mean DLC’s from JPN version can be used with the Asian version? Just wondering.

Guest

I don’t think DLC would work on a japanese account, except if they’re part of an update, or anything else as long as it isn’t part of the PS store.
It didn’t work with Gundam Breaker (Chinese version), which included free gundam parts as a DLC for preorders you had to get on the PS store, so if that’s also the case here, I think it would be better to wait for the US release then.

JAY

Free ….My Favorite word.

Look forward to this releasing in NA.
Saw the anime a few months back, it was ok, didnt like the Fairy arc much.
This game looks good tho and im gonna enjoy the online.

God

The Fairy arc kind of sucks… a lot, i mean, shit went downhill after they used TWO Deus Ex Machinas on THE SAME FREAKING SCENE!!

Kaien

Day 1 future patch promise. XD

RawrWata

I wonder if I’d be able to enjoy this game, considering I’m not a fan of the anime.

The online multiplayer certainly has my interest and the combat reminds me of White Knight Chronicles in a way.

Ramón Navas

Pretty much same for me. It reminds me of a dot hack game, which is cool

quasadra

well, the game is very different from the anime. to start, the plot of the anime is complete thrown out of the window. and if WKC is your thing. it is highly possible you will enjoy this. they have similar gameplay anyway.

darke

I don’t much like the novels, and I’ll likely acquire it after the reviews are released. It really looks more like some variant of standard-anime-jrpg-thing so the stupidly-overpowered-’pc’-party won’t seem to absurd (since it’s expected) as compared to what was supposed to ostensibly be a MMO in the books. :(

MJLahey

So….I was still planning to import the Chinese/English version so I could get a physical copy…but I guess this pretty much cancels my preorder. I assume this “major update” will be as DLC and not a patch. It sounds way to big to be a patch. Plus with all this other free DLC announced….I won’t have access to any of it (without having to screw around with multiple memory cards for a JP account).

Pyrotek85

Yeah same here, I’m assuming DLC and whatnot won’t be compatible unless I’m using a Japanese account. I guess it’s for the best though, they’ll get a sale for this region and see that there’s demand for it.

http://www.lrdalucard.deviantart.com lrdalucard

Come on, just a little push, and Europe is right next!!! :3

David

the moment they said argo would be available to partner up with i am sold!

Kornelious

“Those of you looking forward to Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment (and yes, that now includes you guys in North America)” That made me smile :)
But wow, the game just came out and they already have a big update planned, now that’s dedication
Also….A KIRITO AVATAR………….Must…….have…….to impress waifu’s….XD lol

Firion Hope

“more dating event features with Sachi will be added”

Ooooh interesting, Sachi was easily my favorite. It does smell a bit of release now patch later but its hard to tell and It’s hard to complain about a bunch of free stuff. Really looking forward to this game

lordsofskulls

YESHHH!!! >.< still wish it was from floor 1 though…. o.o and expand the Size of the whole world by x3 times what currently it is ;3

DyLaN

I think making floor 76 – 100 playable plus an entire new area is big enough as it is.

There always the Progressive series if you want to see the story frm ground 1.

lordsofskulls

What you mean by progressive series???

DyLaN

I’m referring to SAO: Progressive, a new series that rewrites the whole Aincrad arc starting frm Floor 1.

lordsofskulls

cool didnt know about that ;3 i am excited to see it come out. I liked SAO set up… just wished the anime kept going to the 100th floor i think they could easily done that in additional 12 episodes instead of the “New MMO” which i think the arc was pretty good too just wish it was lil bit longer.

Black Is a Status

bet we get in the day this upgrade comes out. *looks at vita and ask “can you handle what’s about to come?”*

Sadly, yes. I really hope they have plans to patch in an online mode at some point.

Narrator 1

Can we still use Ad-Hoc Party? Or is that a PSP thing only? I haven’t played online since Valkyria 2 and God Eater 1, so I’m wondering if that’s still a thing.

Histirea

Ad-Hoc Party can be downloaded onto the Vita for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, and although that’s a PSP game, I believe we’ll be able to use it for Hollow Fragment since it’s Vita-compatible software.

JAY

Really no online?
how can you have a game called “Sword Art Online” and not have Online. lol
might reconsider this purchase if thats the case since im definitely not gonna find anyone to ad-hoc with.

TheExile285

Ad-Hoc

David García Abril

Man, they’re really putting money into this!

I was thinking about importing it, but if it ever comes to Europe, I will get one European copy too, just to support it.

Hexodious

As far as I know this game is only digital in NA. Unless I missed some news, of course.

Ragnawind

So far, it is announced for digital release in NA only, as well as digital and physical in Japan, of course. In the future, that could change, though.

Nate

I’m so happy we are getting this game.

Bigabu Beaze

The game doesnt start from floor 1? Does Infinity Moment start from floor 1?

Histirea

Infinity Moment (and by extension Hollow Fragment) starts in a battle on Floor 75, breaking away from the end of Sword Art Online’s Aincrad arc, so it assumes you’ve either read the light novels or seen the anime. You start exploring the dungeons on Floor 76.

Bigabu Beaze

Thanks! Is Infinity Moment radically different than Hollow Fragment? Should I play both?

Ragnawind

Hollow Fragment is just the PSP game with the new Hollow Fragment exclusive stuff, to my know, so you won’t miss anything if you only play Hollow Fragment. The only other difference is a battle System feature, that I know of. That basically means this is just an enhanced port of Infinity Moment, like Tales of Graces f and Tales of Vesperia PS3. In the case of the Tales games mentioned, they were also basically the same game with the new stuff added on. It would also be similar to White Knight Chronicles, where the second game came with the first game and a character import feature and the first game received the same changes that the second game had.

RickyMack

Dissidia Duodecim similarly had the first game’s story mode included as well.

Bigabu Beaze

Thanks so much! I’ll just play the vita one then!

Ragnawind

no floor 1. You start on Floor 76, the floor that would have been next in the original story. The only way to follow the story from Floor 1 is to read the re-booted light novels called Sword Art Online Progressive Edition. It starts on Floor 1 and will tell the story all the way up from there, supposedly, though it seems kind of ambitious on the author’s part. They are working on the Progressive series, the original series, and Accel World al at the same time, after all. The Progressive series so far goes through at least 2 floors, though, but you can only read fan translations unless you can read Japanese. The fan translations go up to Part 20 of the second floor, so far. It is supposed to be close to 50 parts for that section.

Bigabu Beaze

Cool! Thanks for the info! Do you think its worth playing The PSP one (Infinity Moment) if I dont know Japanese?

Ragnawind

Probably not, unless you are only in it for the gameplay.

Otoya

Not really a big fan of SOA but more towards .hack….. the game style look nice. Will I able to enjoy?

TheExile285

If you play it expecting something like .hack? Probably not at all.

Otoya

Thanks for the quick reply!

Rinkawa Erion

Am I the only one who made Yui’s pic above one of my Vita’s vackground image..? XD

Yan Zhao

A major update and a wave of FREE DLC? Am I hearing this right? Good stuff Namco Bandai.

xigtus

I’ve been wondering… Does the update come as DLCs or full game update?

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